Attraction (40 page)

Riley slowly walked back to him. “But, you don’t want to be.”
“No. No. I never wanted you. I never wanted to want you the way I did. The way I still
do. I wanted no part of you.”
Riley lifted her chin up at him, the hurt darkening her light gray hazel eyes. “Why? What
is it about me that makes you repulsed at the idea that you might feel anything for me?”
Heron looked at her for a moment, then closed the distance between them, his eyes on her
face. When he reached her, he put his hands on her waist and slowly lifted her to seat her on one
of the bar stools. He spread her legs and moved between them, keeping his hands on her waist.
“You cause a violence inside me. I felt it from the very moment I turned and looked into your
strange hazel eyes. And then your sister introduced us. I couldn’t help but dislike you. You make
me feel things that no other woman has ever made me feel. My brother said that you’ve got a
clamp on my balls. And he’s right. Yes, those dainty little hands of yours with their long delicate
fingers have a vice-grip on me. That has never happened to me before. But I want to be with you
even when we’re not in bed. I want to see you when we wake up in the morning, and fall asleep
next to you at night. I want to be able to see you across the breakfast table, drinking our coffees,
and sharing the newspaper. And I want you there in when people in my life are in danger…”
Heron stopped, touched his forehead to hers, his eyes closed in pain, his body shuddering. “God,
when I heard about my mother, all I could think of was calling you. I wanted to see so badly, to
talk to you. And, then, when Mother was cleared from the lab, I needed you even more.”
Riley pulled her head back to look up at him. “But, you don’t want to want me. If you’re
with me, you’ll eventually come to resent me for having this what you call a hold over you. If I
bring a man into my life, I want it because he wants to be with me, not because he feels he has no
other choice. You left me. Twice,” Riley added with pained anger. “And you expect me to run
back to you every time you get your courage back up to be with me, is that it? Well, not this
time, Heron.”
Heron looked at Riley, a look of despair on his face that she thought she would never see.
“I love you so much, Riley,” he said hoarsely. “I never thought I could love someone as
much as I love you. Or that it could hurt so much. Tanner said that the only way to make it stop
hurting is by letting myself love you.”
She turned away for a moment, then said, “And if I take you back, will you walk away
the way you did the first time?”
Heron laughed bitterly. “Walk away? To what? I’ve nothing to walk away to. There’s just
you, Riley. There’s nothing else, nobody else. I have no other choice. It’s either marry you or be
miserable without you?”
“Marry me?” Riley said with shock. “You’re talking about marriage?”
Heron gave a caustic laugh. “What else would I be talking about. If I keep you in my life,
I have to marry you. I’ll be damned if let you on a loose chain while you’re with me. You think
I’m going to take a chance that another man could come along and snatch you up? No. I’m going
to bind you up so tight to me that there’s no escape.”
She cocked her head. “And you know that goes same for you.”
“I wouldn’t wish on any man this particular freedom from a woman like you. I’ve had a
taste of that freedom, remember? And look what it has driven me to.”
“To what?”
“Don’t you know? It’s made me crawl back to you. Don’t you see that’s what I’m doing,
right now? I’ve crawled back to you, and now I’m begging for you. You know how humiliating
that is for a man like me?”
“Because you never had to beg any woman in your life, is that it? And you don’t like it.”
“What is there to like? Once a woman drives a man to beg, it won’t be the first time.”
Heron pushed up Riley’s skirt to her waist, tore her panties which were lacy and bright
pink and dropped them on the floor, leaving a bright pink pool. He took her thighs and pulled
them up so her flesh was open to him. He inserted a long finger between her already swollen
vulva, earning a quick shudder and a gasp from Riley. She lifted a leg and hooked it higher over
his waist. Languorously, Heron moved his finger inside her flesh in a slow circular motion. She
clenched her teeth and closed her eyes as she rotated her hips wantonly.
This is what she had missed so much from her days with Heron. This strong, sexual
attraction between them made her realize how much she belonged to him, how much she loved
him and would always love him. It made her so sluttish when she was with him. But it also made
her feel oddly strong in a very womanly way, even touched with some maternal feelings, maybe
even sisterly. It made her feel like a tramp, a love slave, and yet triumphant, powerful.
As he pleasured her with his finger, he undid his pants, took out his penis and plunged it
in Riley. It took him three strokes to be completely inside her. Once he was, he sighed deeply,
shuddered once, and then his body seem to settle down as if he had finally come home.
Content as well to remain physically connected with Heron without consummating it just
yet, Riley lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist.
Riley studied Heron for a long moment, seeing the weary tension and hunger in his eyes.
“If I decide to stay with you, are you going to resent me for the rest of our lives, because I finally
brought down the mighty Heron Wait?”
“It’s not easy to give up a fortress. But my mother says it’s time that I did. I have to turn
to you to be my fortress. That’s not easy, either, to let someone else do some of the protecting,
the decision making, to be stronger sometimes, to know when I won’t be, to look to for
emotional strength instead of finding it always inside me.” At the thought of being vulnerable to
a woman, especially to a woman like Riley, Heron shuddered with wonder and some hint of
foreboding, setting off tremors of pleasure through Riley’s insides.
She squirmed a little in her impalement, and gave a small gasp. When that caused some
heat, she did it again, and was on the verge of using the seduction of her body to get him to drive
harder into her, Heron tightened his grip on her hips and held her still. He wasn’t ready just yet
to fuck this woman to whom he had crawled back to. He still felt raw and shaken inside from the
months of misery of being away from Riley. All he could withstand emotionally at the moment
was the immense relief of being able to hold her in his arms again.
Although she understood Heron’s need to hold off on their fucking and that it was just
enough right now for him to experience the unrelenting, unthreatening, and very sweet intimate
physical union, she couldn’t help but direct a small pout of her lips at him.
She began to thread her fingers through his hair. “You know, when we are married, we’ll
be like any other married couples. We’ll mostly be quite boring, having our daily routine, face
each other everyday of our lives, having to do the typical negotiations of household expenses,
privileges, leaving socks around or leaving the toilet seat up, and haggling over the taxes every
April. Is that what you want? With me?”
Heron stared at her in wonderment. He never thought he could actually look forward to
arguing with a woman over dirty socks lying around the floor. He gave a rueful smile.
“Everyday, common marital bliss. I never thought it was for me.”
Riley wriggled her buttocks a little, tightening her legs around his waist. Heron hissed a
breath as he felt her silken glove pulse around him, making his hands flex tightly on her waist.
Her fingers began to undo the buttons of his shirt. “And now?”
Heron helped her undress him by taking off his overcoat. “And, now, it’s what I want
most in the world. With you.” He drew his head back a little so that he could look down at her.
“How about you? Do you think you could stand spending the rest of your life with an arrogant,
autocratic, supercilious bastard like me?”
Riley was shaking her head slowly, her eyes wondrous as they ran over his face. “I fell in
love with you from the first moment I saw and I knew that you were all wrong for my sister. I
never felt that way for any man. Ever. I didn’t think it was possible. I thought it was all made up
in books and movies. And then you were free, and you walked in here, that night, and, suddenly,
I had to have you. I needed you inside me so badly. I continued to see you against my better
judgment. You see, I knew that you weren’t planning on us going any further than a few nights
in bed. So was I. But, each time I saw you, I was more deeply in love with you. And I couldn’t
do anything about it. I knew I couldn’t. And, then, you let me go…” She stopped because her
breath got caught in her throat, the pain of remembering his cold, unyielding voice on the phone
as he told her that he no longer wanted to see her piercing her heart as powerfully as it had then.
Heron gathered her close to comfort, kissed her tenderly on her temple, rocking against
her, creating both consolation and erotic heat.
“You told me you never wanted to see me ever again,” she whispered at the pain.
“That’s not what I said.”
Riley looked at him with hurtful, accusing eyes, even as they grew slumberous with
growing heat. “But you ended it, without ever telling me why.”
Heron cupped her cheek with his hand. “I had to. I saw no other way. I felt myself getting
closer and closer to going over that cliff. And, then, I did anyway. I’ve never been a coward in
my life. But I was then, because what I felt for you was so much bigger than me. I didn’t even
have an idea how to begin handling it.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“My brother. He said that there was no handling what I felt for you.” He put his arms
around her and began to gather her close, locking her to him, his entire length tightly ensconced
inside her. “He told me that a man could only do one thing when love for a woman side winds
him. He said all he could do is love. Not to fight it, or to deny, or ran away from. I was doing all
those things. It was a nightmare, running away from it, from me, away from you. He said all I
can do is just love.”
A bemused look came to Riley’s small face. Her body began to relax as the hurt and pain
began to fade from her. “Just love. Is that the answer? As simple as that?”
“For the rest of our lives.”
“Hmmmm. Imagine that. A lifetime of simple.”
Still impaled deeply inside Riley, Heron picked her up in his arms and walked her up the
stairs to her private quarters. Locked in the small, stuffy, and rather shabby room, the two fell
into each other’s arms, their coupling wild and hungry from being apart for so long. It took three
carnal couplings for them to take the sharp edge off their desire. Finally, nearly an hour and half
later, Riley was laying on her stomach on the narrow bed, her head facing away from the wall,
her face flushed from being taken so often, her lashes fluttering open and then closing heavily
over drowsy, passion glazed eyes. Heron laid his long, heavy body over her backside, his stillswollen penis deeply inside her, slowly, in long savoring strokes pumping inside her gently,
lazily.
While Heron was celebrating his love for Riley in a never-ending erotic carnage,
downstairs, Joe Monterey and his night crew were arriving. One of the waitresses spotted the
torn pink panties on the floor under the bar.
She picked them up and held them up. “Either we have patrons who are starting the night
early or our cleaning crew is slipping.”
Joe frowned. The door to the bar wasn’t locked but that wasn’t unusual, because Riley
did her paperwork either in her office or out at the bar. But he did not see her around and she
wasn’t in her office. Had some strangers, or worse, transients walked into the bar and decided to
have a fuck, and had not cared to clean up after themselves?
The waitress examined the panties. “Well, whoever it was must have had a good time.
It’s expensive too. French lace and silk, I think.”
Joe’s face froze for a moment and he took a closer look at the pink material. Then he
spotted the overcoat. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he knew that the pink panties belonged
to Riley. He picked up the overcoat and examined it. He could tell that it was quite expensive,
the tailoring handmade, the material a fine soft wool, probably made in London or Italy. There
were very few men Joe knew who could afford such an expensive garment. He raised his eyes up
the stairs, and then smiled.
He grabbed the panties out of the waitress’s hand who was now whirling it around her
finger and gathered up the overcoat. “I’ll take that. Come one, let’s get set up. We’ve less than an
hour before we open for dinner.”
Joe put the panties and the overcoat in Riley’s office and then began to take inventory of
the bar.

One month later, there was a sign outside the door of Riley’s bar that read, “Closed for
tonight: Private Party in progress.” Inside, the families of Calderon and Wait were sitting on both
sides of one long table. Jack Knowles, Heron’s friend was had also been invited. To keep him
company, Riley had invited the buxom blonde, Wendy.

All had come together to celebrate the nuptials of Heron and Riley.
Joe was at the bar mixing the drinks. Four waitresses and waiters were on hand with the
serving of first the appetizers of fras grois and truffles, deviled quail eggs, caviar and melba
toasts, and shrimp cocktail There was red clam chowder as a starter. The dinner was served on a
couple of large seafood platters that were filled to overflowing with whole cooked crab and
lobster, muscles, clams, steamed oysters, langoustines, and shrimp. All around the table were
bowls of butter, white wine, and lemon sauce for dipping. This was served with fresh French
bread and champagne and white wine. The side dishes were Caesar salad, herbed rice pilaf, and
sautéed vegetables.
All four parents wore similar expressions as they presided over the celebration. They
were expressions of what all parents felt when they saw all their children settled into
arrangements that they felt would provide them lifetime security and personal happiness. Roy
and Alana Wait were more than satisfied that all their children were settling into marriages that
were more for the purposes of mutual love and regard than for reasons of money and social
alliances. Lawrence and Caroline had always wished their daughters to marry for love, but,
tonight, they experienced the extra contentment of seeing both their daughters being settled so
well for their future.
Through most of the evening, Alana and Caroline had their heads together with Alana
often writing down on a notepad. It seems that Alana had taken it into her head to commandeer
Heron and Riley’s wedding. She felt that since this was the last wedding that she would go
through in her lifetime, she wanted to make sure that it was beautiful and perfect.
“It won’t be nearly as big as the one for Heron and Roberta. That one was over one
thousand guests. I don’t really think we know that many people.”
Caroline had sighed with relief and had asked Alana how many guests there would be,
thinking that it would be only a few hundred with friends and families from both sides.
“Oh, I would say no more than nine hundred and fifty or so,” Alana had said. And then
she added, alarming Caroline even more, “There’s a good number from overseas, such as Lord
and lady Randolph Cummings. They’re cousins of the queen, you know. Then there’s the French
Ambassador, but he’s already in Washington, so we won’t need to fly him over. And I think we
should extend invitations to the prime minister of Sweden and Belgium, but I’ll have to discuss
that with Roy. He knows them very well, especially Sweden. You know, he almost became
Heron’s godfather. Oh, by the way, I’ve been able to rebook the Grace Cathedral for next
summer. That is just around the corner, two months, really. I wish Heron wasn’t so impatient
with the wedding. It’s not as if he’s going to lose Riley, is he? Well, considering his last
engagement, I guess who can blame him. But to put a proper wedding together, you need at least
a year.”
She retained Hildegaard as the wedding planner, but instead of the planner riding
roughshod over the bride, it was Alana who drove the planner to distraction with constant
demands, changing everything that Hildegaard had decided on, and sending the planner all over
the city on errands.
Alana studied her notes. “Now, I thought it might be a wonderful idea to have the
receptionist in the restaurant atop the Waldorf Hotel. What do you think of that, Caroline? And
the guests can book rooms if they want to stay the night.”
Caroline looked a little dubious. “Lawrence and I were there one time. It was a very
beautiful room, but it was awfully expensive.”
Alana looked at her for a moment. “Caroline, dear, I know I’m being quite crass and
overbearing when I say this, but when it comes to the Waits, money is the last thing you and
your husband need to worry about. Now, I’ve already booked the two top suite floors for both of
our families, and then the two next floors for our closest friends and families. How does that
sound?”
Caroline gave a stunned but wan smile. “I guess it sounds just fine. It’s going to be a
fabulous wedding.” She knew that any wedding with Heron Wait had to be elaborate. He was the
eldest of the Wait family who was general counsel to the family’s international business, a bright
star in the family jewels with his education, skills, and drive. As the eldest and as the last child to
marry, this held certain social obligations, for him and for the family. There would be many who
would expect to be invited. Caroline was well aware of this, and knew there was nothing she and
Lawrence could do to avoid a big showy wedding.
And, this time, Riley as the impending bride, seemed to be able to hold up much better
than Roberta the process of putting together an elaborate wedding. However, she was perfectly
content to leave all the planning to her future mother-in-law, happy to be only responsible for
choosing her own dress and to appear at the alter at the date and time that Alana set.
Caroline had been privately relieved when she had not had to go through Roberta and
Heron’s wedding. But, now with Heron marrying Riley, she knew there was very little chance
that the second engagement would fall through. She looked down at the middle of the table
where the engaged couple was sitting. Caroline thought she had never seen two people more in
love as they, or so aware of one another and unaware of the world around them. Heron had his
arm across the back of Riley’s chair, and she was leaning her back against him so that she was
half sitting on his lap. As she steadily ate through the chocolate mousse cake, she held a lively
discussion with her sister and Beth Anne on politics. Heron was listening to his brother and his
brother-in-low discuss sports. But as much as the two were engaged in their separate discussions,
they were continually drawn to one another, their heads turning in intervals to look at the other,
their eyes locking for a long moment before turning back to the conversation. Sometimes they
would fail to observe courtesy, and Heron would pull Riley closer about to wrap her in his arms
and begin to make love to her, when a loud cough would break through their spell and remind
them that they were not alone.
Caroline smiled when she saw Riley begin to go through Heron’s untouched desert after
she had finished hers. Heron did not take notice nor minded the small theft if he did. He did,
once though, turn her head up to his and kissed her slowly so that he could taste the bitter sweet
chocolate on her lips and tongue.
Watching the very tall, very attractive man with her eldest daughter, Caroline could now
see that Heron Wait had never really been in love with her younger daughter. She had never seen
him look at Roberta the way he looked at Riley, or had difficulty keeping his eyes off her. When
he looked at Riley, the look in his eyes were as if he wanted to devour her and yet found what he
saw so fascinating, so mesmerizing. He had never had any trouble keeping his hands to himself
with Roberta, unlike with Riley, whom he was always touching, his hand at her back or sifting
through her dark hair, or brushing his fingers against her cheek. And he seemed to always need
to have her near, and when she wasn’t, he was soon in search of her.
His behavior was the behavior of a very lovesick cow, which, Caroline had to concede
but she did so privately, was quite laughable. She would never have guessed that the very
controlled, very correct, very arrogant Heron Wait acting like a young boy in the throes of his
first violent love.
It occurred to Caroline that Heron Wait very much needed Riley as he had never needed
Roberta.
Her attention came back to Alana when the other woman asked, “Now, how about you
and your husband staying at our home in the city for a few weekends. I think that would be much
less tiring for you than be driving all that way back and forth.”
Caroline blinked. “Please don’t think that you have to put up with us…”
“Oh, Jesus, you’d be no bother at all. There are ten bedrooms with each full baths besides
our own master quarters. And we have servants. So, you’d hardly be in the way. And Riley can
come with you until she has moved into Heron’s penthouse.” Alana called down the table.
“Riley, when are you moving into the penthouse?”
There was no answer. At that moment, Riley was giggling and trying to ward off Heron’s
roving hands as he nibbled on her neck.
“Heron, mind your manners and take your hands off the poor girl,” his mother
reprimanded sharply as she did when he was a boy. “Please be kind to keep your lecherous hands
to yourself while you are in the company of others, even if they are your own family.”
Heron turned a little red and glared at his mother, embarrassed and not at all used being
dressed down for rude behavior. There was a general snickering from Heron’s siblings.
Alana turned back to Caroline. “I thought I would never have to say that to Heron. He’s
always seemed in perfect control where girls were concerned. But I’m afraid he can’t keep from
touching your lovely Riley. As much as those two must go at it, we might have a little surprise in
the oven long before the wedding.”
Caroline could only stare at the other woman, a little taken aback by such frankness. But
her discomfort soon turned to pleasure when she realized that she would very likely soon be a
grandmother either by Riley or Roberta, or by both. Quite pleased with the thought, she turned
her attention back to Alana, who was going through a list of the possible flowers for the
wedding.
On the other side of the table, towards one end, Jack was having a difficult time keeping
his eyes straying from Wendy’s large blue, disarming eyes and stray down to her triple D breasts
that were spilling generously out of her tight shell-pink camisole that was edged with dainty
white lace.
“Are you really a lawyer?” she asked as she forked some tiramisu through her red, cupid
shaped lips.
When her pink tongue flicked over them to catch the cream, Jack was sure he was about
to cream in his pants. “When we get to my penthouse, I’ll show you my law degree from
Stanford and my license. Why, don’t I look like a lawyer?”
Wendy shook her head, her bright blond curls shaking all around her doll-like face. “Uhuh. Your face looks too fun.”
Jack’s eyes widened with surprise, not at all expecting her answer. “What do you mean
by that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. You have a nice face. Most lawyers have mean faces. But yours is a
good face. Someone I can trust. You know.”
Jack shifted in his seat, a little uncomfortable. He was beginning to realize that beneath
Wendy’s big blue eyes, round kewpie-doll face, blonde hair, and generous curves, she was rather
down-to-earth, if a little naïve, and sweet with a warm, generous smile. It was much harder for
him to play the predatory wolf-hound when he liked the girl.
“What do you do for a living, Wendy?” he asked, surreptitiously retrieving his hand that
had been creeping along the back of her chair.
“I’m a hair dresser.”
“Do you like it? Cutting hair?”
“Oh, I love it. I’ve always wanted to be a hair dresser, ever since I was five and cutting
up my Barbi doll’s hair. It’s a good thing, too, because, as you can see, I don’t have much brains
for anything else. How about you? Do you like being a lawyer?”
“I don’t mind it. It has its moments. Definitely perks.”
“I went out with a lawyer, one time. He wasn’t very fun. All he cared about were my
boobs. The only he thing we wanted to do to me was to rub his dick between them. All night, all
I did was just lay on my back while he jerked off on my breasts. Just as well, because the guy
had such a small dick. It looked like what my pink lipstick looks like when it’s almost time for
me to buy another one. I wouldn’t have felt anything if he had tried to pop me off.”
Jack made a sound of sympathy, trying not to laugh. “Not very much fun.”
“Yes, thank you. Tell me, are all lawyers into big breasts like he was?”
He opened his mouth but closed it again, not knowing quite what to say. “Well, we
definitely don’t dislike them.”
Wendy gave him a close look. “You know, you’re a nice guy.”
Jack laughed. “Thank you. I find you really nice, too, Wendy.”
“I don’t think I would mind fucking you.”
Jack gave a huge smile. “Well, that’s good, seeing that I wouldn’t mind having you fuck
me.”
Heron kept Riley close to him with his arms around her. “Why don’t we go upstairs,
hmmm?” he suggested in her ear, and to encourage her acquiescence, he bit her ear lobe, and felt
her slight shudder.
Riley drew her head back to look up at him. She could feel his body tensing with need,
his hands growing hard and demanding. By now she had deemed the small, overly stuffed
private room as the fucking room, because that’s all they did when she and Heron were locked in
it. They fucked and fucked, and fucked some more. Then they slept. Then they fucked again.
That’s exactly what they had been doing a few hours ago minutes before their families
had arrived for the dinner. Heron had her propped up on the small table, his hands holding her
legs apart, poised ready above her. Both had been naked and had been having sex for the past
hour, instead of getting ready for the dinner.
Just before he was about to bury himself back into her, Joe’s voice came over the
intercom. “Riley, everyone’s here.”
“Oh, we’re not even ready,” Riley said and tried to close her thighs.
But Heron pulled them further apart and inserted his heavy bulbous tip inside her. She
moaned and wriggled her hips a little as the pleasure heated and tightened in her loins.
“Riley, did you hear me?” Joe asked.
“Uh, yes,” she said, her voice breathy, trying to catch her breath as Heron pushed deeper.
“Ahhhhhh.”
“What was that?” Joe’s voice came over.
“Uh, nothing,” she said desperately, trying to keep her head lucid. “Tell…tell them we’ll
be down in a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
Not waiting to be sure that Joe was off the intercom, Riley gave a soft moan and say with
sensual petulance, “Oh, you big brute, driving that thing so deep inside me.” She gave a cry this
time as Heron plundered long and hard back into her.
From downstairs, she could hear the voices of her and Heron’s family, which made her
feel mortified that while her parents and future in-laws were below her, she was on her hind
quarters, naked, her buttocks hitched high up in the air, her legs held apart while their son
plowed heavily in her loins.